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Karstens will get shot at rotation in 2010

Jeff Karstens will make one more start this season – Wednesday – in one of the games of the day-night doubleheader against the Cubs. This afternoon, manager John Russell said Karstens might get a shot at making the rotation in 2010.

“We’ll probably build him up as a starter in spring training,” Russell said, noting that pitching coach Joe Kerrigan prefers to have at least 10 starters at work at the start of camp. Karstens would have to beat out either Charlie Morton, who slowly is gaining confidence and has electric stuff, or Kevin Hart.

· Freddy Sanchez will have surgery to repair torn cartilage in his left knee, which brings his season to an early end. Sanchez sustained the injury before the Pirates traded him to the San Francisco Giants and re-aggravated it last week.

Sanchez told Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury-News he expects to test the free-agent market – but does not envision returning to Pittsburgh.

“I loved it there,” Sanchez said. “But there’s not the same guys there. Everybody I came up with got traded. Once you make a decision like that, it’s hard to go back.”